Ninjas Next Door
by imma dino hear me roar
Summary: In preparation for an 18th birthday party, a group of friends invite the new neighbors for a fun night. But, the neighbors aren't just regular teens like themselves. You only turn 18 once, but these Suna and Konoha ninja make friends for life. Mostly OC/Gaara OC/Sasuke with other pairings.
1. New Neighbours

This is like the third or fourth time I've tried reviving this so bear with me. Anyway, I'm Jelly and I hope you enjoy the chapter!

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The stack of instructions for college applications shook lightly in her petite, bare hands. She was warned to wear gloves earlier that morning but the weatherman said that the chances of snowing were slim, and certainly not enough to stick to the ground. Her friend snickered into her scarf as she looped her arm through her own, pulling her closer and melting into the thick jacket. Nat never did like admitting that Leah was right, even when she was nearly shuddering in her light sweaters but graciously accepted the warmth. She stared at the snowflakes falling onto the paper, hoping they would melt quickly and smear the ink so she wouldn't have a reason to keep them anymore but they stayed frozen. As they started walking by Leah's house, she took the stack from Nat and tossed them into her yard. Nat looked at her through tired, chocolate eyes.

"That's littering." She said. With her hands now freed, she crossed them to hug herself and keep all of her body warmth to herself.

"Listen," Leah said, tugging along Nat for them to keep walking to her house. "You finished applying for all the colleges you wanted to. Now that you're done with that, you can just relax for winter break. You know," She held her and out for a few flakes to fall in only to immediately melt. Then she took her wet hand and pressed it against Nat's face. "Chill out." Leah giggled softly as Nat flinched away and used her sleeves to soak up the melted snow.

"Ugh." Nat groaned, her nose scrunching up in disgust as she wiped her sleeve against her leggings. She looked back up at Leah. "I'll chill out _after_ my party." Her eyes pulled back down to the snow not yet cleared from the sidewalks. Most of it was unseen, though, as her wavy brown locks was often in front of her face. "Still have to pay for the music and food."

She sighed, slouching forward at the thought of the ridiculous amount of money. But her mother absolutely insisted that she have a large 18th birthday party, even if her parents wouldn't be able to attend. They moved back to their home country a while ago and left Nat with her brother, who left her to find a place for himself since he was too old to be babysitting his baby sister, and Nat was already old enough to take care of herself. Leah came over enough that the soon-to-be adult barely noticed that she was alone in her home.

"How are you gonna get the word out?" Leah asked.

Nat looks up at Leah again, and let a huff of cold air out. "I'm hoping I can get Bree to let everyone know." Her eyebrows rose in worry. It made her anxious to ask a very popular girl from school to tell everyone else but just letting Bree know would be more productive than trying to contact everyone on her own. Bree had a large following so she hoped that the short-tempered woman would show some kindness and help out poor Nat. "I'll DM her later but once we get home I'll tell everyone else."

"I'll invite the marching band kids, too." Leah said, not bothering to ask Nat if she wanted to because she would've done so anyway.

"Hm." Nat hummed softly, a faint blush creeping onto her cheeks and butterflies beginning to crawl out of their cocoons to feast on her insides. Her brown eyes peered up into Leah's crystal green ones. "All of the marching band kids?"

Leah smiled with pity. "Yeah, even Evan." Her smile turned to a smirk as she watched Nat's eyes light up at the mention of her crush's name. She chuckled especially loud to tease Nat of her boring crush. Even his _name_ didn't interest Leah, she never really liked him. But the thought of him made Nat happy, so she had to deal with it until she moved on. Leah pulled out her phone to send a mass text to all the band kids that she knew, pressed send, then held it up for Nat to look up. "See? They'll come. Trust me!"

Nat hummed again, content in her voice as they walked on and started to pass the mansion just next to Nat's home. It was incredibly large, incredibly extravagant, and incredibly out of place in the otherwise middle-class neighborhood. A long time ago, the house was actually one of the smaller ones until the owners renovated it into the pride of the neighborhood. They've since moved out, and left the empty mansion for sale for a few months now. The girls barely noticed the SOLD sticker poorly plastered onto the FOR SALE sign.

Their eyes wandered from the sign over to the three people standing in the driveway of the mansion. Each of them had been staring up at the falling snow and heavy, grey clouds looming over at them. They stared in a child-like wonder, their eyes were so focused on every single corner of every single snowflake that they didn't notice the two girls staring at _them_ in confusion One with dark-red hair and thick eyeliner noticed them, light blue eyes flickering over to them then alerting his companions of the girls.

He easily intimidated Nat. His hair seemed absolutely unnatural and the rings around his eyes were frightening as it contrasted his pale face. Still, she called over to them. "Are you guys all right?" She half expected them to turn away and ignore her, but the blonde woman of those three instead approached Nat and Leah, leaving the two males behind.

She had a fully matured body but didn't look that much older than Nat and Leah. Her spiked hair was arranged in an odd fashion, pulled back into four short ponytails. She wore a black dress that seemed like it was too thin for this weather but she showed no signs of discomfort in the cold. Teal eyes bore into them like a mother scolding some children but a teasing smirk danced on her lips.

"We're fine, thank you. Not used to snow all that much." She looked back her male companions. "Just moved in from the desert, you know?" Her smirk grew wider as Nat and Leah immediately nodded now that the situation was cleared up. The woman eyed the two of them and chucked a little bit at the sight of Nat and the way she shivered in her light clothing. "You girls live around here?" She asked.

"Yeah." Nat said. "I live right next door." She eyed her house longingly, not that the conversation was uncomfortable, just that it was taking place in the cold. She looked back at the blonde woman. "Did you three just move in?"

The older woman blinked in confusion before looking at the two males who waited patiently, then craned her neck to motion for them to come over. "We did, but it isn't just us three." She looked back at the girls and finally smiled, a gesture so warm and _happy_ that two didn't know why it made their hearts skip a beat. "I'm Temari, by the way."

A quiet, brief gasp escaped Leah's mouth. She turned to say something to Nat but had been interrupted by the man with brown hair. He looked older as well, but maybe a bit younger than the blonde woman. "Kankuro." He said, a simple introduction but he didn't look like much of a conversationalist. He noted how shocked Nat's face turned. She flinched back just barely, but noticeable enough to the three.

Nat's eyebrows rose as she glanced at the one with red hair and dark eyes. She looked away immediately as the sight of him utterly terrified her. Leah saw his frown before he introduced himself. His lips fluttered quickly but Leah didn't hear him, so she leaned in closer to him.

"My name is Gaara." He crossed his arms in frustration, easily short-tempered apparently. Temari chuckled in amusement, making Gaara glare at her out of the corner of his eye before settling back on Nat. "What about _you_?"

Butterflies that already escaped their pods stopped gnawing on Nat's innards. At the sound of his voice, they began to swarm together and crawl all about her stomach until they travelled up bloody tubes and into her throat. Their wings and antennae rubbed against the walls of her throat as they pushed themselves out into her mouth. They rubbed against her teeth, her gums, her tongue, and they tasted sweet. She was afraid of speaking, afraid that if she opened her mouth then the butterflies would pour out of her mouth and pelted by snow, only to seek refuge in her mouth again.

"I'm Natasha." She spoke quickly to test out the possibility that the butterflies inside of her would in fact _not_ swarm out and into her face. "You can call me Nat, too." This time she could be understood, because the threat of vomiting insects vanished as they retreated back into her stomach and into their cocoons. Her friend smiled at her as she spoke much more confident.

"And I'm Leah! It's really nice to meet you." Her smile and enthusiasm infected Temari and Kankuro, but couldn't reach Gaara as he had not been looking at her. Instead, he examined Nat just out of pure curiosity.

"Well," Temari said. "It was nice meeting you two, but my brothers and I still have some things to take care of." She turned around quickly and started to walk back to the mansion, throwing a wave over her shoulder and motioning for the two guys to follow her. "We'll talk to you later!"

Kankuro looked back at the girls with a grin and waved a silent goodbye before heading after Temari and leaving behind Gaara. He continued staring at Nat as if her existence was just an odd thing he found interesting to have happened. He took half a step forward, enough for her to take two steps back so instead he leaned in closer and blinked. A small smile pressed itself onto his face.

"See you around." He turned about quickly and disappeared into the mansion.

Leah giggled at the sight of Nat's pink cheeks and started walking ahead of her. Nat sighed, a stray butterfly taking the opportunity of her open mouth and fluttering out only to suddenly collapse and disappear in the snow. She stepped over it and started catching up to Leah. The grin plastered in her face teased her and made Nat roll her eyes.

"You like him."

"Yeah." Nat said.

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If you like the story, be sure to leave a review! Don't forget to give that heart button a click to add to you favourites/follows. Thanks for sticking with me and the second chapter is in the works but with me being on break, hopefully this goes somewhere. Bye, Guys!


	2. Party Invitation

For the first few days and the fact I did not put the characters in the tags and just unleashed it into the void of many untagged fanfictions, this story is doing pretty okay! Anyway, I'm Jelly! I'm not really getting a good vibe from this chapter considering I wrote half of it at 2 in the morning BUT I digress. Enjoy the chapter!

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Nat locked the door behind her as Leah went to set her bookbag in her room, leaving her to herself. Her recovery took a while, a few minutes that felt like an eternity because what threatened to project out of her mouth now shoved its way back down her throat and into its resting place within the chambers in her stomach. She gulped, the spit giving a final _push_ to the insects as Nat's face settled back to its honey brown tone. Rich, chocolate eyes flickered up to Leah when she called for her from upstairs

"You think those guys seemed familiar?" She asked. "I'm so sure I heard their names before." Leah's head popped out of Nat's room, her ginger hair flowing loosely and just past her shoulders.

Nat looked away. Her eyebrows furrowed as there was a _vague_ connection formed between those names and something else she heard of. She looked back up and nodded. The two brushed it away and chose not to dwell on it any longer. Leah came downstairs and plopped down on the couch in the living room, making room for Nat who followed. Her green eyes focused on how the birthday kid sat, her legs crossed, her back hunched, and her hands holding her face as she leaned on her knees. A smile came to her eyes as Leah quietly hummed a chuckle, one loud enough that Nat could still hear.

She gave her a tiny glare, then straightened her back. Her eyebrows twitched for a second as she tried to find her voice. "...Did the band kids say anything yet?" Her sudden confidence made Leah blink. While she was upstairs her phone probably did get bombarded by marching band kids who had nothing better to do on a Friday night but she didn't want to get Nat's hopes up.

While tugging on a stray strand of hair and looking at Nat with pleading eyes, Leah nodded hesitantly. "Sure you even want _him_ to show up? He isn't all that cool, you know." She rolled her eyes going back to playing with her hair but observing Nat to see her reaction. To her surprise, Nat kept her cool. Compared to the mention of her crush and the way she talked to that one neighbour, Leah assumed that the Love Bug finally found a new host to feed on.

"I mean," Nat leaned back against a cushion. "I don't want to exclude him or anything." Leah pursed her lips at Nat's defensive stance, but reached for her phone in her back pocket anyway.

She unlocked her phone and scanned the messages to see if Evan answered yet. A quiet sigh escaped her lips. "He answered." Nat suddenly sat up straight, her face contorted into worry as she waited for Leah to go on. "You have to call him."

"Me? Why?" Nat's rapid breaths and quicker speaking caused Leah's eyebrows to rise. Maybe the Love Bug wasn't gone after all. Under Nat's curious stare, she rubbed the back of her neck and chuckled sheepishly.

"So, uh," She nervously scratched the side of her face. "A while back we were gonna have a movie night for the band kids and it was my job to invite him and-" She paused when Nat gasped in shock. "I did invite him! Just to the wrong theater...on purpose…"

"Jesus Christ, what's wrong with you?"

"He's fun to mess with!"

"You're awful." Nat crossed her arms defensively and puffed her cheeks in exasperation. A weak groan formed in her throat as she reached for her phone in her pocket. Looking at Leah's phone for Evan's number, her tan hands shook anxiously as she rung him up. "Can't believe this is happening." Nat grumbled.

Looking over to Leah for moral support, her shoulders dropped when realizing that her friend had been staring at the mansion, keeping an eye out for any new characters that would pop out. Nat sighed crisply. She decided to go downstairs to the basement so that she would have some privacy while on the phone, and giving privacy to Leah as stared wistfully.

Each ring pulsed in her ears and violently shook her heart. The harsh tone vibrated throughout her stomach, annoying insects in her system that simply wanted rest. At the third ring she hoped to God that he wouldn't answer so she wouldn't have to talk to him. She considered hanging up and have Leah convince him that she should just take her word that Nat wants him there. The cloth of her sweater stretched as her grip tightened when the ringing stopped and during the brief silence, she sighed. To her surprise, no butterflies escaped.

" _Hello?_ " He asked. Voice low and quiet, she had to strain her ears to listen clearly.

She gulped. "H-Hey, Evan." Her other hand gripped a nearby chair as short nails dug into the wood. She spoke quick, but clear. The threat of upsetting her innards lingered, but they managed to quell themselves back to sleep as she spoke. Only a few butterflies stirred uneasily, but it was faint enough to ignore.

" _Nat."_ Her name in his mouth sounded breathy, like he was relieved it was actually her and not Leah trying to impersonate her.

"Yeah!" She said. "Leah wanted me to call you about the party." Nat looked up to the living room and mentally scolded Leah about her past - rather, _recent_ \- behavior.

" _Yeah…_ " He said. He drew it out and didn't say much afterward, as if he wasn't listening to her. After a quick cough, he spoke again. " _Y-Yeah. I can come to it. I just need the details from you._ "

"All right, I'll send you-"

" _Wait!_ " Evan gasped at his own interruption. In a hushed whisper, he apologized but it left Nat a little bit stunned. She began picking at her hands as the duration of the call made her grow more anxious. " _Can…_ " He took a sharp breath. " _Can you tell me now? I'll write it down. A-And I'll save your number, too. Just in case,_ " He sighed. " _Just in case I need to talk to you more._ "

Nat's fingernails dug further into the skin of her palm. This rare instance of Evan being demanding in his own way, _initiating_ contact, jolted the butterflies in Nat's stomach awake. Once again they raced out of their cocoons and floated to the base of her throat, past her tongue, and slipping through her teeth. Just as strange as the prolonged interaction between the two teens, the butterflies from Nat's stomach didn't have the urge to escape and assault her. They were drunk on his voice and were giddy. Taking this rare opportunity, Nat obliged Evan. As she shared with him the details of the party, she allowed the insects to flow gently out of her mouth and wrap her in a warm embrace of confidence.

Upstairs, Leah had been so invested in staring at the mansion next door that she didn't even notice two people exiting through the front door. Snow had been lightly falling and the two walked at a steady pace to admire it while approaching Nat's house. When they arrived at her front door and rang the doorbell, Leah gave a little squeal and a jump in surprise. Nat popped her head out into the doorway, phone held to her ear, and nodded towards the door, motioning to Leah to answer it. Tugging an orange strand behind her ear, Leah got up to open the door.

Standing there were two similar looking people, booth with long locks of hair. One was taller, masculine, brown hair pulled back in a low ponytail and arms crossed with long, white sleeves from an elegant coat that swayed with the wind. He bowed faintly, as if it were instinct for him. The woman next to him was shorter, maybe even shorter than Leah. Her violet hair wasn't odd as Leah was friends with maybe people who coloured their hair, but this woman's hair was so natural looking. She had been covered in a fluffy, purple jacket and her long hair and bangs framed her fair face. She too bowed, although more noticeably.

Leah wasn't sure where to look. At the platter of sweets in the woman's outstretched hands or at their eyes that had been lacking any sort of colour in them. Convincing herself it was the snow playing tricks on her, Leah focused on the treats and her face immediately lit up.

"Hello." They both said in unison, causing Leah to grin.

"We c-came to drop off some sweets." The woman spoke, although it was unsure if she was looking at Leah or the ground. "I-I am," She turned her head quickly at her companion for reassurance. "H-Hinata. This is my cousin," She paused to allow him to continue.

He straightened himself out and placed his hands at his sides. "My name is Neji. We recently moved next door, along with some friends." He turned to Hinata to see if she would continue but decided that he would deal with the rest of the introduction. "Temari said that she met you and your friend, so we thought it would a good time to introduce ourselves as well." He took a breath to say something else but let it slip his mind, and became slightly uncomfortable with what he would say next. "...Hinata-sa-"

"I had j-just made sweets!" She cut him off abruptly. She and Neji shared a quick look before paying full attention to Leah now. "I hope y-you like them." Hinata's petite, shaking hands gave the platter to Leah as she and Neji waited patiently for something.

Leah, lost in thought as to how familiar they both looked and sounded, nearly forgot to introduce herself. She readjusted herself then smiled. "It's cool to have neighbours our age now! I'm Leah, by the way." She quickly glanced down at the living room to see if Nat would come upstairs to introduce herself but when she didn't come, Leah's mischievous mind had an idea. "You know, my friend Nat is going to have a party later. You guys should come by! Bring your friends, too. It's gonna be real fun."

Hinata had beamed at the idea of a party, and Neji also smiled at the kind gesture. Again, they shared a look which made Hinata look like she was asking for approval from Neji. He nodded.

"That sounds like a lot of fun." Neji said. "We'll make sure to tell everyone else."

"They'll all be h-happy to come tonight!" Hinata added in a quiet, but still excited, tone. "Thank you! W-We'll go tell them right now." Hinata and Neji both bowed again, and went back to their home with Leah waving them off.

Just as Leah closed the door, Nat came back from her call took the plate of sweets Leah thrusted into her hands. "Who was that?" She asked absent-mindedly, taking a treat and plopping it into her mouth. She moaned through the delicious taste that encourage Leah to take one for herself.

"The neighbours." Leah said in between chewing. "Two different ones came by to introduce themselves." She snagged a handful before scurrying back to her spot on the couch to stare at the mansion again. "Told them to tell everyone there to come by for the party."

Nat nearly choked on her treat, some leftover butterflies escaping in the meantime to flutter twice as harmoniously because of who they'll be meeting at the party. Once reminding herself that the bugs were in fact, not real, she rushed over to Leah. "You did what?"

Leah grinned to herself before looking up at Nat. "Once you finally realise that Evan is a snore, you'll thank me for inviting that red-head."

A gasp Nat took sucked in the stray insects, but it couldn't subdue them. They made her stomach turn as their excitement of seeing both soon clashed with her uneasiness and worry for the party.

"What if I like them both?" Nat asked. The question was more to herself but Leah thought the idea was funny.

"You just can't get a break, can you?" She said sarcastically, causing Leah to lightly smack her arm. "What? You said you like him."

Nat, in the middle of rolling her eyes, left the conversation at that to answer a knock on the door. Upon answering the door, she was pulled into strong arms and lifted off of her feet in a big hug. The guy holding her smelled of cologne, an overpowering scent that she recognised easily as she laughed. After putting her down, he let himself in and closed the door behind him. He flipped his platinum blonde hair and let it settle to cover his right eye, leaving his left eye to show its lively, emerald green color.

"It's really good to see you, Thomas."

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Oh dear god I haven't checked over this but it's 3:30 am I just want to sleep. As much as I love to sleep I just really wanted to get this chapter out. Also if you notice, I alternate between English and American spellings like "our/or" and "ise/ize" don't ask me why because I'm just a Mexican kid from the states. And did you know that you get really hungry if you stay up late? Anyway, if you enjoyed the chapter, be sure to leave a review. Don't forget to give that heart button a click to add to your favourites/follows. It's been a year in the making but the rewriting of In Reality is finally going! Thanks for sticking with me. Bye, Guys!


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